'One is bound to be very careful. How can I give you to a man I
know nothing about,--an adventurer? What would they say in
Hertfordshire?'

'I don't know why they should say anything, but if they did I
shouldn't much care.'

'I should, my dear. I should care very much. One is bound to
think of one's family. Suppose it should turn out afterwards
that he was--disreputable?'

'You may say that of any man, papa.'

'But when a man has connections, a father and a mother, or uncles
and aunts, people that everybody knows about, then there is some
guarantee of security. Did you ever hear this man speak of his
father?'

'I don't know that he ever did.'

'Or his mother,--or his family? Don't you think that is
suspicious?'

'I will ask him, papa, if you wish.'

'No. I would have you ask him nothing. I would not wish that
there should be an opportunity for such asking. If there has
been intimacy between you, such information should have come
naturally,--as a thing of course. You have made him no